Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Not our first dance song 1
This isn't our first dance song but technically it is "our song". When we first started going out we spent a lot of time at the student union and this song was on ALL THE TIME!! We've decided that it isn't really appropriate for our first dance.
Do you have a song? Is it going to be your first dance?
Monday, 28 June 2010
I queued for Wimbledon 2010
I even have a sticker and a numb bum to prove it. I didn’t unfortunately get into the ground or to watch any live tennis.
This post is my lessons learnt:
This post is my lessons learnt:
- Arrive early, we arrived at 9:00 and were 8,700 in the queue, had we been half an hour or an hour earlier we would have probably gained access to the ground.
- Queuing is hard work, take something comfortable to sit on and plenty of food and drink - the burger vans were selling bottles of water for £1.50 and it only gets more expensive inside the grounds.
- The toilet facilities were actually very clean – a huge relief.
- The grounds open at about 10:30 and around 12:00 there is a big decampment and people are led closer to the grounds – they take you from this lovely grassy field where you have plenty of space to spread out, where the kids can play football and sit in the shade and make you stand on a plastic roadway which is about 3 metres wide for, potentially, 5 hours. There are some places to cop a squat but it is far from comfortable – why having something to sit on is important.
- Once the show courts have started play at 13:00 and people have taken their seats another wave of people are let in. If you don’t get in during this time you are in for a long wait as it then becomes one-in-one-out.
- The stewards are pretty good at estimating how long it might take you to get into the grounds and at crowd control – they’ve done this for many a year and can judge the queue. They also know what capacity allowed for that day, this varies from day to day depending how many corporate tickets or presales have been made.
- The overnight campers are hardcore! They were setting up camp from 10am.
- Queuing for Wimbledon is like a form of torture, you gamble with yourself – if we haven’t moved by 12:00 we’ll go home, we moved. If we haven’t moved by 14:00 we’ll go home, we moved. If we don’t move in the next 20 minutes we’ll go home. We did move but not far enough so we went home.
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Race for Life
Today is the ninth year that Mum, #1, #2 and I with our relevant hanger on-er-ers have come together in the summer for Race for Life. It is a female only race so the hanger-on-er-ers are left with the bags/coats/water and sometime *fingers crossed* suntan lotion.
#1 and #2 run the 5km while Mum and I walk as fast as we can. As much as possible we avoid reading with the heartbreaking messages* people write on their backs in memory of loved ones or stories of successes - crying makes walking difficult! The family tradition has grown and my niece has joined in for the last few years now she is old enough.
We take part to raise money for a very good cause, we take part to remember those who have lost the battle with cancer or those who are still struggling against it. We come together to celebrate our family of women and to celebrate other women.
*I'm taking part for my cousin who is currently battling an incredibly rare form of cancer, he was released from hospital this week after another round of treatment because the bastard came back again.
#1 and #2 run the 5km while Mum and I walk as fast as we can. As much as possible we avoid reading with the heartbreaking messages* people write on their backs in memory of loved ones or stories of successes - crying makes walking difficult! The family tradition has grown and my niece has joined in for the last few years now she is old enough.
We take part to raise money for a very good cause, we take part to remember those who have lost the battle with cancer or those who are still struggling against it. We come together to celebrate our family of women and to celebrate other women.
*I'm taking part for my cousin who is currently battling an incredibly rare form of cancer, he was released from hospital this week after another round of treatment because the bastard came back again.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Tuesday evening
*
O – “You went out so I had to make the tea, I shouldn’t have to clear up as well”**
Me – “I went out to the Family Planning Clinic*** that isn’t my idea of FUN. I had a 2 hour wait so I can pump myself full of hormones on a daily basis so that we don’t make babies. You try it!!”
*hormonal breakdown
**he makes the tea and clears up everyday. I’m not sure why on Tuesday it all got too much for him. I put the bins out which is clearly a boy job!
***I don’t mind waiting but they had two new incompetents on the reception desk and not enough nurses and the waiting room was absolutely roasting hot.
On reflection I may have been a little unreasonable.
O – “You went out so I had to make the tea, I shouldn’t have to clear up as well”**
Me – “I went out to the Family Planning Clinic*** that isn’t my idea of FUN. I had a 2 hour wait so I can pump myself full of hormones on a daily basis so that we don’t make babies. You try it!!”
*hormonal breakdown
**he makes the tea and clears up everyday. I’m not sure why on Tuesday it all got too much for him. I put the bins out which is clearly a boy job!
***I don’t mind waiting but they had two new incompetents on the reception desk and not enough nurses and the waiting room was absolutely roasting hot.
On reflection I may have been a little unreasonable.
Monday, 21 June 2010
Just finished reading
(image from here)
Bloggers you have to read this book, if you enjoy crime “who dunnit” novels. I’ll try not to spoil the story but the plot revolves around a blog writer, the subject of a blogpost and the comments that the post sparks – a warning not to give too much away on the internet and to watch what you say. So if you want to freak yourself about your anonymity in blogosphere this is the perfect book for you.
If you want more cultured book recommendations, please visit Stacy and see her “I just finished reading” series.
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Special Women 2
Not only do I have two Mums and a fantastic Mum-in-law, I also have an extra sister in my best friend who I'm going to call Cee. I’m not sure where she fits in the #1, #2 and #3 rankings as she is 17 days younger than me (a fact she likes to gloat about), however she is also the eldest of three sisters and often treats me like a younger sister. Cee is infinitely wise but a total klutz, the first words she uttered in my presence, on our third day at university, were ”I’ve just spent ages lost on a flight of stairs,” stairs go up, stairs go down, how do you get lost? - was my reaction. To be fair our halls of residence did have two flights of stairs per corridor and she had been on the wrong one so every time she came out at a floor it looked totally wrong – now I've known her for nearly 11 years that story is the tip of the iceberg of the scrapes she can get herself into.
Cee is the only real life person (apart from O) who knows about the blog, in fact I told her before I told him. Why? Well she has a blog too and was brave enough to tell me about it. If she ever gets back to writing on her blog – she hasn’t for over 2 years (nag) and if she gives me permission I will share it with you, she is hilarious. Why the massive break? Because she has spent the last two years studying for an MSc, she got married and her job got horrible.
Cee welcomed me into her family from the start. She supported and distracted me while I was horribly homesick and not very together. I hope, I supported and distracted her while some members of her family weren’t very together. I love her little sisters as if they were my own. Oh and her grandparents are ah-mazing! Although don’t get her Gran to pour you a drink or you could end up under the table there is nothing like a small measure when Gran Cee is around.
Having lived together for the majority of our university life we decided after graduation that we would go travelling to Canada together. We spent 2 months travelling from Vancouver to Montreal on a greyhound bus with a sly trip to Seattle and New York at either end because it was cheaper to fly in and out of the USA. We had some adventures, we met some characters, we sang to some bears (we were trying to scare them and if you could hear our singing voices you would know that we succeeded in terrifying all nearby living creatures). We had a glass of wine in a Fairmont hotel, we battled a hurricane in Kingston, we scared ourselves witless in Montreal and we had an amazing time!
For what feels like FOREVER she has been battling with this blessed MSc until earlier this month when she has discovered that she passed. I am so over the moon happy for her as I’m acutely aware of all the hard work she has put in. Acutely aware because it has meant that my bestest friend has not been at my beckon call, has had to cancel lunches/dinners so that she could study/cram for an exam and has been stressed to the nth degree. The cheek of it, do I sound suitably spoilt and ungrateful? Good because I’ve missed the heck out of her and can not wait to have her back.
Cee is the only real life person (apart from O) who knows about the blog, in fact I told her before I told him. Why? Well she has a blog too and was brave enough to tell me about it. If she ever gets back to writing on her blog – she hasn’t for over 2 years (nag) and if she gives me permission I will share it with you, she is hilarious. Why the massive break? Because she has spent the last two years studying for an MSc, she got married and her job got horrible.
Cee welcomed me into her family from the start. She supported and distracted me while I was horribly homesick and not very together. I hope, I supported and distracted her while some members of her family weren’t very together. I love her little sisters as if they were my own. Oh and her grandparents are ah-mazing! Although don’t get her Gran to pour you a drink or you could end up under the table there is nothing like a small measure when Gran Cee is around.
Having lived together for the majority of our university life we decided after graduation that we would go travelling to Canada together. We spent 2 months travelling from Vancouver to Montreal on a greyhound bus with a sly trip to Seattle and New York at either end because it was cheaper to fly in and out of the USA. We had some adventures, we met some characters, we sang to some bears (we were trying to scare them and if you could hear our singing voices you would know that we succeeded in terrifying all nearby living creatures). We had a glass of wine in a Fairmont hotel, we battled a hurricane in Kingston, we scared ourselves witless in Montreal and we had an amazing time!
For what feels like FOREVER she has been battling with this blessed MSc until earlier this month when she has discovered that she passed. I am so over the moon happy for her as I’m acutely aware of all the hard work she has put in. Acutely aware because it has meant that my bestest friend has not been at my beckon call, has had to cancel lunches/dinners so that she could study/cram for an exam and has been stressed to the nth degree. The cheek of it, do I sound suitably spoilt and ungrateful? Good because I’ve missed the heck out of her and can not wait to have her back.
Monday, 14 June 2010
Making it legal
Today we took our marriage notice forms to the registrar*.
There was confetti on the floor outside.
I grinned quite a bit.
*we happened to be helped by the registrar who will marry us. That was a bizarre feeling - meeting the woman who will marry us, eek.
Dress fitting
Eeek today is my first dress fitting - why am I nervous?
I know that it doesn't need too much adjustment. The hem needs taking up and it is too big at the top. As the shop assistant said when I collected the dress "we needed to get you the bigger size to get it over your hips".
Oh thanks for that! I'm pretty confident that as a woman my hips are always going to be the biggest bit of me!
Anyway I'll let you know how I get on.
*Update
Of course it went absolutely fine. She was lovely. Said nice things about my dress and was full of very wise advice.
Oh and so reasonable in terms of cost, less than half what I had in the budget.
I know that it doesn't need too much adjustment. The hem needs taking up and it is too big at the top. As the shop assistant said when I collected the dress "we needed to get you the bigger size to get it over your hips".
Oh thanks for that! I'm pretty confident that as a woman my hips are always going to be the biggest bit of me!
Anyway I'll let you know how I get on.
*Update
Of course it went absolutely fine. She was lovely. Said nice things about my dress and was full of very wise advice.
Oh and so reasonable in terms of cost, less than half what I had in the budget.
Friday, 11 June 2010
Mum in Law
If you aren’t already green with envy that I have two Mums, I also have a pretty awesome Mum-in-law. I’ve never been introduced to other boyfriend's parents so I don’t have any comparison but I think we get along pretty well. It is such a big unknown, you are in love with this individual but there is no guarantee that you’ll love their family – their friends you can usually avoid if there is serious disagreement but families kind of stick around plus the horror stories about Mum’s and their sons!
Having been with O for 7 years I already feel like I’m part of their family but it is a huge bonus to getting married. We had a family photo recently and I hung back with the other partners until we were told off for being silly and shooed into the photo. Moreover, I’m going to take her name, we’ll both be the same Mrs. I’ve heard my friends say oh don’t call me Mrs so and so that is his mother *derogatory tone*!
She has been fabulous about the wedding, no interfering lots of encouragement, lots of “that is a really good idea”, “I like that”, “you are very organised” etc. I worried when the florist felt that the anemone she had chosen for her buttonhole would be too delicate to last the day but no she would have anything that the florist suggested. We only had one “maybe you should do it this way” regarding some of the invitation wording and that was because we deliberately sent it to her for her opinion.
Tonight mum-in-law is coming to stay at our flat O is out so we are going out for curry just the two of us. I’m really looking forward to it. (It has to be curry because dad-in-law doesn’t like curry so she never gets to eat it when he is about). She is on her way to France, she did invite me to go along, unfortunately I couldn’t afford it either in money or time.
How do you get on with you mum-in-law?
Have a great weekend.
Having been with O for 7 years I already feel like I’m part of their family but it is a huge bonus to getting married. We had a family photo recently and I hung back with the other partners until we were told off for being silly and shooed into the photo. Moreover, I’m going to take her name, we’ll both be the same Mrs. I’ve heard my friends say oh don’t call me Mrs so and so that is his mother *derogatory tone*!
She has been fabulous about the wedding, no interfering lots of encouragement, lots of “that is a really good idea”, “I like that”, “you are very organised” etc. I worried when the florist felt that the anemone she had chosen for her buttonhole would be too delicate to last the day but no she would have anything that the florist suggested. We only had one “maybe you should do it this way” regarding some of the invitation wording and that was because we deliberately sent it to her for her opinion.
Tonight mum-in-law is coming to stay at our flat O is out so we are going out for curry just the two of us. I’m really looking forward to it. (It has to be curry because dad-in-law doesn’t like curry so she never gets to eat it when he is about). She is on her way to France, she did invite me to go along, unfortunately I couldn’t afford it either in money or time.
How do you get on with you mum-in-law?
Have a great weekend.
Ring, ring, ring
Last time we were in Leeds we dropped off my engagement ring with the jeweller so that my wedding band could be made to fit perfectly alongside. At that time we collected O's wedding band. On Tuesday when I was at home feeling sorry for myself with a bad back the post-man arrived with my engagement ring and wedding ring.
I LOVE THEM!!!
*photos by me - wow they are bad!
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Invitations
We knew what we wanted the invitations to look like quite a long time ago so I'm not sure why we left it so long to make them and send them out. We are now down to less than 50 days until the wedding. RSVPs are rolling in, shhh don't tell anyone but I'm starting to get excited!
Supplies
Pocketfolds from PDA
Insert cards from PDA
Translucent envelopes from PDA
Other translucent envelopes from Ideal Envelopes
RSVP envelopes from Ideal Envelopes
Printer ink - ordered via the work stationery order, discount!
Things we didn't remember
Our venue need us to preorder the food so we printed the menu on the back of the RSVP card. But we forgot to add any note about special dietary requirements (this woke me up in the middle of the night we posted them). O is a vegetarian so they are covered and we're hoping that anyone else will just speak up.
Bright colours
Pocketfolds from PDA
Insert cards from PDA
Translucent envelopes from PDA
Other translucent envelopes from Ideal Envelopes
RSVP envelopes from Ideal Envelopes
Printer ink - ordered via the work stationery order, discount!
Printing drama 1
Even though the website clearly states that the cards are not suitable for an inkjet printer I still hoped that they might work - guess what they didn't. I hoped that they would print on my parent's printer so we sent them a sample of the card - their laserjet printer wouldn't take the card so small it kept going squint. O brought home a spare laserjet printer from his work it printed on the glossy paper sample we had but the card was too thick. O returned that printer and brought another one home (no idea why they have so many spare printers but very handy for us). This time it both printed without smudging and fed through the card. Only there were ink dot marks on the card after they came through. I spent a day cleaning the printer trying to shift these marks. It turned out all it needed was a new ink cartridge. Twas very stressful at the time but doesn't look like such a big deal written down.
Spillage
Once we knew that we could print the cards we went ahead and bought enough for the invitations - and then some. All the card was in a shoe box next to the table. Unfortunately O managed to spill a pint full of squash straight into the box. Argh wet card, argh all of our invitation card! Thankfully we moved fast and managed to separate the card and laid them out to dry and enough were saved to make all the invitations, hopefully we will have enough for the other bits and pieces. PHEW! The box above shows the cards separated into; could be stuck down, could have an edge cut off, to be used for test printing only and perfect (of which there is not a lot left).
Wording
Once I got going, with dry card, the printing was easy. Finalising all the wording was a struggle but we got there in the end. We had a different information card for those members of the family staying at the venue. O drew a map to the venue on MS Paint - I love it, he isn't so keen.
We used different wording for our parent's invitations. I knew that my parent's would want an invite but they couldn't really invite themselves (we went the traditional route). It also felt a bit strange to have my parent's invite O's parents to their son's wedding - apparently I'm the only one who thought it was weird but meh!
We used different wording for our parent's invitations. I knew that my parent's would want an invite but they couldn't really invite themselves (we went the traditional route). It also felt a bit strange to have my parent's invite O's parents to their son's wedding - apparently I'm the only one who thought it was weird but meh!
Things we didn't remember
Our venue need us to preorder the food so we printed the menu on the back of the RSVP card. But we forgot to add any note about special dietary requirements (this woke me up in the middle of the night we posted them). O is a vegetarian so they are covered and we're hoping that anyone else will just speak up.
Please Turn Over (PTO) - two of the cards have information on the back. The information card has O's map on the back of it and the RSVP card has the menu options on the back. A couple of the people we saw opening their invites failed to turn the information card over. We have had one RSVP returned without any food selection, my friend states she didn't see the menu on the back and I'm inclined to believe her rather than think she just forgot to fill it in. Oh well PTO would have spoilt them and people will need to figure stuff out for themselves!
Printing drama 2
O decided that he wanted translucent envelopes (he thinks they are cool, which they are) - we had managed to print them before, however when it came to printing time the envelopes wouldn't go through the printer. We quickly bought another variety of envelopes which didn't work either. We brought back the inkjet printer and it worked ok other than chewing up several of the envelopes for no apparent reason. (We lost about 15 envelopes to the printer).
Bright colours
When we bought the first lot of translucent envelopes to make the delivery charge worth it we also bought a box of 500 random coloured envelopes (we won't need to buy envelopes for a really.long.time). It so happened that some of the envelopes were the perfect size for the RSVP cards - before they arrived we weren't going to include RSVP envelopes but it seemed silly not to. Also I love the fact that my parent's are getting lots of different brightly coloured envelopes. Their post-man has even commented on it.
So that is it, they are in the post. People are actually coming to our wedding!
*shocking quality pictures by me
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Presents for the hen organising committee
I wanted to buy my sisters and bff a thank you gift for organising my hen do. They all have very busy lives and erm I'm not very good at asking people to do stuff for me. So organising the hen do felt like a big ask.
I feel I came up with the perfect gift prints from babypicturethis. Problem was when they arrived I wanted to keep them ALL!!! I am keeping some of them I just need to get them into a frame and on the wall. The rest I managed to prise away from myself and gave to my ladies.
Thank you Laura, so beautiful.
(very poor photo by me)
(for Laura's etsy shop please visit here)
(to see more photos please visit Laura's blog)
Friday, 4 June 2010
My Hen Do
On Friday night, two weeks ago, my sisters arrived two hours late - thanks sleazy jet!
Early Saturday morning we woke up and quickly had showers, I tried my wedding dress on for all of thirty seconds, we were running late, this was the first time they'd seen the dress so after a group hug we ran out to the car.
About an hour and a half later we arrived here. The weather was stunning! #1 and the friend who reads this blog headed to the flats that we had rented for the evening to drop off the mountain of food we had. We spent the day relaxing in the sunshine, swimming in the pool, some even went to the gym. We each had a treatment - full body massage, bliss. We arranged it all through here - would recommend them.
When all the relaxation was over we headed to the flats for food and games and fun. #2 had arranged a Mr and Mrs* quiz**, for every question I got right I got a prize, each of my girls had bought me a gift and I had to guess who they were from. There were also lots of random gifts including, huge pink hoop earrings, scrunchies and bride to be pants.
I had a great time, it was very sedate and relaxed but perfect for me. Thank you ladies!
*what they didn't realise is that O can not keep a secret from me. He never has been able to. So he told me about the quiz and then I tortured the questions and answers out of him. I tried really hard to play along with the quiz until the very last moment when I slipped up. I don't know who was the most angry. #2 at O for telling me about the quiz or O at me for telling them I knew about the quiz.
** turns out they know me quite well
Early Saturday morning we woke up and quickly had showers, I tried my wedding dress on for all of thirty seconds, we were running late, this was the first time they'd seen the dress so after a group hug we ran out to the car.
About an hour and a half later we arrived here. The weather was stunning! #1 and the friend who reads this blog headed to the flats that we had rented for the evening to drop off the mountain of food we had. We spent the day relaxing in the sunshine, swimming in the pool, some even went to the gym. We each had a treatment - full body massage, bliss. We arranged it all through here - would recommend them.
When all the relaxation was over we headed to the flats for food and games and fun. #2 had arranged a Mr and Mrs* quiz**, for every question I got right I got a prize, each of my girls had bought me a gift and I had to guess who they were from. There were also lots of random gifts including, huge pink hoop earrings, scrunchies and bride to be pants.
(picture of me by #1)
I had a great time, it was very sedate and relaxed but perfect for me. Thank you ladies!
*what they didn't realise is that O can not keep a secret from me. He never has been able to. So he told me about the quiz and then I tortured the questions and answers out of him. I tried really hard to play along with the quiz until the very last moment when I slipped up. I don't know who was the most angry. #2 at O for telling me about the quiz or O at me for telling them I knew about the quiz.
** turns out they know me quite well
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